A chin-rest is a part of stringed subtle instruments˜violins and violas—and serves to make the instrument easier for the violinist to hold while playing. Over the last 600 years, or since the creation of the first violin, there have been attempts to make the chin-rest an integral part of the violin, while ensuring that its performance and its attachment to the instrument is such that it preserves the autonomy of the resonance of the box and all of its characteristics and traits, and in a way that does not degrade the tonal quality of the violin.
In addition to preserving the autonomy of the resonance of the box of the instrument, other critical demands for the chin-rest are that it is practical in use and that its production costs are low.
The main components of the violin are shown in FIG. 1. These include the chin-rest 1, the resonating box 3, and the string holder 7 (otherwise referred to as a tailgut holder). The manner in which existing chin-rests are positioned on the instrument and in contact with the body of the violin have not essentially changed.
There have been a number of approaches to resolving the above-mentioned technical problem of devising a satisfactory method for attaching the chin-rest to the violin.
It can be concluded from a review of the current state of the technique that none of the existing methods for attaching the chin-rest to the violin achieves to the fullest extent possible an autonomy of the resonating box of the instrument as a crucial goal, and that the criteria of rationality of execution and practical use have not been fulfilled.
In the patent literature many attempts have been described for arriving at a solution to this technical problem.
One such solution is represented by U.S. Pat. No. 6,667,430. Under this patent the chin-rest is attached to the resonating box of the instrument with a fitted metal structure, which also permits height and angle adjustment of the chin-rest. Besides being complicated in its execution and expensive, this solution is impractical in application. However, its basic shortcoming is that the metal structure rests directly on the upper and the lower walls of the resonating box of the instrument. This changes the instrument's acoustical characteristics and the changes are not eliminated by small pads placed between the metal structure and the wall of the resonating box of the instrument.
The shortcomings of a previous patent have also not been removed by the solution represented by U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,259, although elastic materials have been used. A undoubted advance in this sense is to be found in invention Number DE 197 17 338. It avoids the traditional method of attachment by use of a screw that is situated at the very end of the violin and which supports the whole construction of the chin-rest. But, at the first glance it can be noticed that this solution is extremely complex, both in its execution and in the manner of attachment to the instrument itself. The attachment of the chin-rest to the instrument also affects the sound quality of the instrument, and the linkage of the all of the parts is extremely complicated.